Chargers crush mistake-prone Bengals

Reuters

Tight end Ladarius Green of the San Diego Chargers, top, catches a touchdown under pressure from defensive back Chris Crocker of the Cincinnati Bengals in their NFL wild-card playoff game at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sunday.

Photo: AFP

The San Diego Chargers took full advantage of a second-half meltdown by the Cincinnati Bengals to claim a 27-10 American Football Conference wild-card win on Sunday and move to the divisional playoffs against the Denver Broncos.

Trailing 10-7 at halftime, the Chargers made Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton pay dearly for his miscues, two interceptions and a fumble, to hand Cincinnati their first home loss this season.

“We asked a lot of our defense today, they came up with three big turnovers. We needed to convert those into touchdowns and we didn’t, but we did enough,” Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. “We didn’t turn it over and that is key, it always is in playoff games, and then the weather got bad. When you have a lead and the weather turns, it’s in your favor.”

For American Football Conference North champions the Bengals it was another shocking end to a promising season as their run without a playoff win extended to a painful 23 years.

Four times in the past five seasons Cincinnati have appeared in a wild-card contest and fallen flat, losing twice to the Houston Texans (2012, 2011), the New York Jets (2009) and San Diego.

“Obviously, the biggest difference was turnovers,” said dejected Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, who is winless in five trips to the playoffs since taking over as head coach in 2003. “It’s tough. It’s a tough day. It’s disappointing, as hard as we’ve worked and played, to have a football game where we had opportunities and we let it go. When you turn the ball over like we did today, that keeps you from scoring.”

San Diego outscored Cincinnati 20-0 in the second half, but it was far from a dominating display by the Chargers offense as Dalton passed for 334 yards, nearly three times as many as Rivers, who had a modest outing, completing 12 of 16 passes for 128 yards and one touchdown.

However, Rivers was mistake free, while Dalton and the Bengals committed a total of four turnovers.

It was the fifth straight win for the Chargers, who will carry building momentum to Denver on Sunday to take on Peyton Manning and top seeds the Broncos.

“We talked all week about this being the fifth round, so the sixth round will be next Sunday in Denver. We’ve been in that [must win] mode for five weeks now. We know what’s in front of us, Denver is an awesome team,” Rivers said. “We were able to win there a few weeks ago, so we’ll be confident, but it is going to be a tough task.”

The Chargers were first onto the scoreboard, Rivers engineering a time-consuming 86-yard drive that chomped up nearly half the opening quarter and was capped off by the diminutive Danny Woodhead darting over from the five.

Cincinnati answered with a time-crunching drive of their own in the second, Dalton marching his team 60 yards before tossing his first career post-season touchdown pass to Jermaine Gresham.

The Bengals had opportunities to pull away later in the quarter when they fumbled inside the San Diego five, but still took a 10-7 lead into halftime on Mike Nugent’s 46-yard field goal on the final play of the half.

Rivers, who attempted only six passes in a conservative first half, opened things up in the third quarter, completing six of six passes, including a four-yard touchdown pass to Ladarius Green, to jump in front 14-10.

A pair of Dalton miscues, a fumble and an interception, deep in Bengals territory allowed the Chargers to add to their lead, going 20-10 up on two short Nick Novak field goals.